The struggle for Identity in The Glass Menagerie including comparisons
The extract from The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams attempts to show the power roles between parent and child. It also shows the role of a young male in the home and a child’s struggle for identity through the repression of the mother. The writer’s message in this extract is to show how a parent and surroundings can influence a child. This extract shows Tom’s fight for his identity, trying to be the man he wants to be, while everything around him stops him from doing that. We also learn about a woman’s struggle for identity during this time.
In The Glass Menagerie we learn that about the role of a woman in society at that time. The extract clearly shows that Tom, the man of the house, brings in the money and provides for the family; a clear stereotype for a man. Amanda, as a woman, is unable to work to bring money into the house. The stereotypical role of a woman is for them to be home, looking after the house and the children. This shows the struggle for women’s rights and gender inequality because women weren’t allowed to work. When it says ‘Who pays the rent on it, who makes a slave of himself…’ it shows the social convention of the male being head of the house hold but it could also show that Tom might feel bitter about having to give up his life to take his father’s role and support his mother. Maybe he feels betrayed by his ‘faithless’ father leaving them when he was younger?
Small Island shows gender inequality as well through Gilbert and Hortense’s plan to travel to England. Hortense is unable to travel to England without being married which shows that though she is intelligent, she can’t do much without a man by her side which links to the Glass Menagerie because Amanda, the mother, would be lost without Tom as she can’t work for herself. But this could also be a contrast as Hortense wants to be an independent woman and she does as much as she can for a black woman in her era. Whereas Amanda doesn’t seem to do anything for herself in
In The Glass Menagerie we learn that about the role of a woman in society at that time. The extract clearly shows that Tom, the man of the house, brings in the money and provides for the family; a clear stereotype for a man. Amanda, as a woman, is unable to work to bring money into the house. The stereotypical role of a woman is for them to be home, looking after the house and the children. This shows the struggle for women’s rights and gender inequality because women weren’t allowed to work. When it says ‘Who pays the rent on it, who makes a slave of himself…’ it shows the social convention of the male being head of the house hold but it could also show that Tom might feel bitter about having to give up his life to take his father’s role and support his mother. Maybe he feels betrayed by his ‘faithless’ father leaving them when he was younger?
Small Island shows gender inequality as well through Gilbert and Hortense’s plan to travel to England. Hortense is unable to travel to England without being married which shows that though she is intelligent, she can’t do much without a man by her side which links to the Glass Menagerie because Amanda, the mother, would be lost without Tom as she can’t work for herself. But this could also be a contrast as Hortense wants to be an independent woman and she does as much as she can for a black woman in her era. Whereas Amanda doesn’t seem to do anything for herself in